I GIRL, THEREFORE I AM

Is the rapid girlification of the digital trendscape more than a passing gag? Three young adults weigh in with their experiences and reservations

- NIDA NAEEM

It's the year of the girlies. The ways in which we talk on the internet as well as the waves of trends that shape our timelines have pushed girlhood into a space it never occupied before. What started out with more aspirational lifestyle tropes like 'that girl', 'clean girl' and 'hot girl summer' has unfolded into a selfaware, albeit facetious, reckoning with what it means to be a young woman today. Case in point: 'girl dinner', and 'girl math'.

For the uninitiated, girl dinner took off on TikTok last July (with a dedicated sound bite to boot), with women sharing the low-effort meals they often put together for themselves using whatever bits and bobs available to them. Only got peanut butter, boiled eggs, nachos, and a handful of raisins in your pantry? No problem. Girl dinner is served. Culture writer Ria Chopra shares how she enjoyed watching people put their own spin on the trend, with everything from iced coffee to Bollywood actor Hrithik Roshan qualifying. Anya Wahi, a Bengaluru-based apparel designer who reveals that she ends up having some version of girl dinner every night, also shares, "Girl dinner was a big one for me because it normalised struggling with adulthood in this economy. I follow this trans content creator who was like, 'girl dinner', and then she shows her HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) medication. That's very real to me because my HRT meds are the last thing I take before I sleep."

JUST JESTING